ownership society

For those who recognize the right to own firearms it would be wise to start thinking hard about a set of proposals that could address our glaring public safety problem without ending the era of American gun ownership. The principles of an ownership society could guide us to an approach that could work, both in practical and political terms.
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In 1980, a suburban Philadelphia accountant named Ted Benna identified an unintended feature of the recently passed IRS Code section 401(k). The terms of the rule seemed to allow companies to create pre-tax retirement savings programs directed, owned, and controlled by employees. The IRS agreed with Banna’s interpretation. Thus began a lucrative new business and an accidental revolution in retirement finance.

There is deep insight in this nugget of historical arcana. First, the 401(k) was not part of any effort to kill the corporate pension. The shift toward individualized retirement was driven by ordinary people scrambling to cope with public policy choices that no longer made sense.

The solution is right under our noses. As the Cold War ended, a group of Republicans began to envision a new rationale for the Republican Party; one based less on fear of an enemy than on hope for better, freer, more prosperous lives for everyone. The Ownership Society, as originally conceived, would have been a bridge allowing ordinary Americans to begin to participate in a capital-driven economy.

The Ownership Society is less a specific policy than a political posture. In its first iteration it was strangled by ideological demands that forbade Republicans from even acknowledging, much less addressing, some of the weaknesses in the concept. Nonetheless it remains a potent idea, the one most relevant to the needs of our time.